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How many transcendent moments do you have in an average day? Have you ever stopped to count? Are you eager to or scared to? How many is a good amount for the average person? How many is a good amount, the “right” amount, for you? Do you always know a transcendent moment when it happens? Is it possible that it HAS happened more than you think but that you haven’t put yourself in a position to appreciate it? Does it sound as if I’m lobbying for a position as a nationally renowned life coach?

You have to give French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, not to be confused with New York Giants defensive lineman Jason Pierre-Paul, a lot of credit: His most famous utterance, the title of this post (though in the original French, it’s “L’enfer, c’est les autres”), is the product of a man thinking at the top of his game. It’s a depressing potential truth to contemplate but it’s about as provocative as four words can get. (If you look at my previous post, you’ll see it’s also obsessed with four-word phrases.) You can’t not stop to consider its truth – and the fact that you can’t not stop doing that suggests it has some truth to it (that it’s not frivolous); and if it has some truth to it for you, then it stands that for some others, it’s even more true. I don’t know where I’m going with this. Orange circles are nice, too.

The first four words of a recent ESPN article – “Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger…” – appears to me to be a series of connected, vaguely and not-so-vaguely palindromic words, demanding of amateur lexicologists and wits an answer that is not coming. There’s something almost incestuous about the collection of letters.

There. I said it. What everyone else was thinking.

This post has nothing to do with Japan. I just like brightly colored circles.